Category Archives: Guest Posts

In late 378 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire was in pieces. Emperor Valens lay dead on the plains of Adrianople, surrounded by the corpses of his best generals and legions. Victorious, the Goths of Fritigern roamed all over the land of Thracia (modern day European Turkey and Bulgaria) like conquerors, and with no emperor or army to curtail or contest them, it must have felt like the end of the world to the Roman people – holed up in the few high-walled cities capable of resisting the Goths.

The stages of the Gothic War (left-right): revolt, pillage and then victory. And that’s where Legionary: Empire of Shades begins – in a fallen land.

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for this excellent artwork.

Theodosius I was the man chosen to tackle this sorry state of affairs. A Spaniard who had proven himself in recent military engagements in Pannonia, he was offered the Eastern throne by his Western counterpart, Emperor Gratian. Gratian’s thinking and the conversations held between the two men must have been quite a thing to eavesdrop upon – for Gratian had only a few years previously ordered the brutal beheading of Theodosius’ father, viewed as a rival. Regardless, Theodosius accepted the offer. Did he fear Gratian? Did he perhaps see the ‘gift’ of the Eastern Empire as a way to prove his loyalty to his father’s killer and guarantee his own safety? Or might Theodosius even have had a hand in his father’s death? We will never know (although I do indulge in a bit of speculation in ‘Empire of Shades’).

Theodosius I

After accepting the Eastern purple, Theodosius made his headquarters at Thessalonica. The city, capital of the Diocese of Macedonia, was well-positioned: on the eastern coast of modern-day Greece, far south enough from troubled Thracia so as to distance himself from immediate threat, but close enough to plot a reconquest. There he set about reviving the shattered Eastern Army. Firstly, he erected a great turf wall around the city – partly to bolster its defences but also to enclose an area that could serve as a military campus within which he could rejuvenate the ruined Eastern Army. And that was Theodosius’ next step – to summon to Thessalonica the remaining fragments of the legions shattered at the Battle of Adrianople, who were by now hiding in the hills and woods on the periphery of Thracia.

Left: The Roman city of Thessalonica and its famous Galerius Rotunda. Right: The lay of the land following the Adrianople disaster.

But as these army ‘fragments’ congregated at Thessalonica, it would have quickly become apparent to Theodosius just how few had survived the disaster, and it seems he acted upon this stark truth quickly. Starting in 379 AD, he issued a series of decrees to allow the depleted ranks to be filled and for obliterated legions to be reformed. Retired veterans were obliged to return to duty, as were their sons – attempts at bribery to escape service would now be dealt with severely. Indeed, noblemen were required to supply their slaves to the army, and refusal would result in said noblemen being burnt at the stake! Even peasants, beggars and deserters were swept up in an effort to plug the manpower shortage.

Starting at the same time as this mass-recruitment, and continuing over the next few years, Theodosius raised five new generals, or ‘Magistri Militum’ to command these raw troops. With fresh recruits and new leaders, Theodosius now needed a victory to cement their loyalty and his place on the throne. One of his first retaliatory strikes against the Goths occupying Thracia was carried out by a small Roman expeditionary force: under cover of darkness, they outmanoeuvred and fell upon a drunken, sleeping warband (thought to have been four or five-thousand-strong), descending upon them from a hillside to claim a decisive victory.

News of the triumph was very much welcomed in Thessalonica, but Emperor Theodosius knew it was merely a warband that had been defeated, barely denting the horde. And still, the legions were too few and too thin to consider action against Fritigern’s main force. Thus, in search of yet more manpower, Theodosius was forced to turn his eye towards the north, into the wilds of ‘Barbaricum’ (everything north of the River Danube).

Theodosius was forced to look to the most unexpected of places for fresh recruits… the lands of Barbaricum! (left: the Carpathian Mountains, right: the woods and hills nearby)

Bringing more Goths into the empire – as allies to fight against their marauding kinsmen – was a risky strategy but a wholly necessary one. Indeed, it had been policy in past (albeit far-more stable) years. It is here that the heroes of the XI Claudia Legion come to the fore in ‘Empire of Shades’. Tasked with trekking into Barbaricum and escorting dubious allies back into the war-torn empire, they then face the prospect of once again standing up against Fritigern’s horde. Weaker, fewer, and with recent defeats branded on each legionary’s mind, the soldiers of the empire must learn to believe once more, to stand together, and to rekindle the dying light of the East….

Today its pleasure to bring to a guest-Post by Author Thomas Dellenbusch from Germany. I recently reviewed Thomas’s work and asked the author if he would like to chance to give a little background info to himself and his work. I must admit I’m very glad indeed that he agreed 🙂

Hi everyone, my name is Thomas. David asked me to write this guest post for you to explain how I came to my movie-length-stories and for what they are good for. It’s a pleasure to me, because there is an important question I have to you ask about a rumor that exists in the German book-scene about English readers. I’ll come back to it later.

First let me introduce myself. I am a German author and publisher, born 1964 in Düsseldorf and still living there. My English isn’t native, so please excuse, if there are mistakes in my text, in particular in grammar. From 1982 to 1999 I was a detective at police, then quit voluntarily to become a writer, predominantly for the advertising industries. In 2013 I founded a small publishing company for movie-length-stories. I’ll come back to this topic. In my leisure time (apart from reading books of course) I like to play boardgames and watching good movies.

Why Movie-Length-Stories?

Back to the topic. In some evenings my girlfriend and I do like to switch off the TV and to read books aloud to each other. One of us read aloud and the other one listen to it. It’s like listening an audiobook but live. We like that a lot, but… What shall we read? It’s not that easy as it sounds. Obviously full-novels are no option, because they are too long. You’ll never finish them in one evening. Short stories instead? Too short. Short stories end within a maximum of 20 pages, so they don’t fill the evening. There should be something in-between. Stories that fill an evening but also end in time. Stories with a reading time of about 2 hours like an average movie. Movie-Length-Stories. A term was born.

What I am talking about are novellas with a length of about 80 or 100 pages. But novellas are hard to find in German bookstores, because they aren’t that popular in Germany. German readers love full-novels, the thicker the better. Some German book-bloggers said to me that they are convinced that novellas could only be the half-way-finished rubbish by an unable and untalented author. Isn’t that kind of thinking silly? Anyway… I am a writer, so I decided to write my own movie-length-stories and to found a small publishing company for that purpose.

Meanwhile, 4 years later, my German slogan “KopfKino in Spielfilmlänge” (theatre-of-the-mind in movie-length) has its own fanbase, and there are currently 20 different movie-length-stories (and 6 anthologies) available, 8 of them written by me and the other ones by 6 other authors under contract. The genres are typical for entertainment: from romance to thrillers, but no horror, erotica or drama.

Every single story is available as a Kindle e-book and additional as an audiobook. A friend of mine is owner of a professional music-studio, so I can produce professional audiobooks for a fair price. My thought was, that if I offer stories for reading aloud, there should be also an audio-version available. And last but not least: Most of the 20 stories are also available as paperbacks, each 116 pages.

Meanwhile I got the response from my readers that reading aloud is not the primary way to use these movie-length-stories. Mainly they are bought for all the daily interludes, a trip on the train, the bus, the car or a plane, the hours spent in waiting-rooms or at the hairdresser’s, on your coffee-break or during an afternoon at the beach, before turning out the lights at bedtime and so on.

Now I come back to my question about the rumor about English readers that exist in the German book-scene. Whenever I speak to German professionals (editors, agents, publisher, etc.) I always receive the same answer: Thomas, you should live in America or in the UK. Because American and English readers meet novellas with much more respect than German readers do. This form of literature is much more popular there than it is here.

Unfortunately I don’t know your book-scene or your reading mentality. Is that true? Do you meet novellas with more respect, do you like them? Please let me know in the comments below.

Maybe now you probably want to try out what I am talking about? Recently my two movie-length-thrillers “CHASE: The Hunt for the Mute Poetess” and “CHASE: The Hunt for a King” have been translated into English by Richard Urmston, member of the American Translator Association. They are available on amazon.co.uk as Kindle ebooks and paperback. “The Hunt for the Mute Poetess” is also available as an audiobook, narrated by Morgan Peter.

Well as some of you will know I’m recovering from an issue with my wrist, something to do with cartilage and the nerve being aggravated..so these means I’m trying to take it easy for a little while.

This has lead me perfectly to posting some guest blogs/excerpts I’ve been holding on to!

First up is a excerpt from Mestlven by author Jesse Teller!

Here’s the blurb

Revenge, Insanity, and the Bloody Diamonds

Meredith Mestlven was abused and betrayed by her nobleman husband. After a desperate fit of retaliation, she fled for her life and lost her sanity. Now nearly 20 years later, she returns to her home at Sorrow Watch to destroy her enemies and reclaim her jewels. How far will she go to satisfy her revenge? Dark, cunning and beautiful, Mestlven will win your heart or devour your mind.

Would you like to read to read a bit from the opening scene? Well here you go –

Festival of The Pale

The Pale, the goddess of death, fixed her rotting eyes squarely on the city of Mestlven where grew a darkness, patient and terrible. Her murder lifted from the battlefields of Corlene to swoop and brood on Mestlven’s roofs and scream at her citizens. Enormous crows, two feet tall with four-foot wingspans, terrorized the city and ate her trash, her vermin, her dead. When those sources of rotting meat and bloated flesh ran out, the crows began hunting her young. The coming of the crows marked the goddess’s intent for the city to host her annual festival. The clergy of The Pale arrived in force while her citizens cringed and waited with dread.

Mort arrived in Mestlven on the eve of the festival, her garrote stashed in the cuff of her robe, her dagger hanging from her hip. She murmured the prayers of The Pale and witnessed the spectacle of the massive city. Built by a long-dead race of giants, the scale of the buildings reached beyond her understanding.

Her wagon lurched ahead, rumbling along the cobblestones. The idols it carried trembled. Navigating the hills and winding alleys of the city proved difficult. Citizens pressed in tight to see The Pale’s cloth march through their streets like the slow and steady onset of some plague. Hunched over the reins of the wagon, Mort was used to the way they stared, fear branded on every face. Her brown wool cloak, befitting a priestess of her rank, gave no hint of the trim body she hid within its folds. They could not hope to guess her size. With the grinning skull she had painted on her face, and the scowl their pie-eyed looks teased up from her, she knew their fear nearly crippled them. No city wished to host the Festival of The Pale, but for some reason the goddess’s considerable murder had chosen this town. Mort found her anticipation growing.

For long years she had been a brown robed priestess of The Pale. She longed for advancement within her order, for a better understanding of her goddess and a closeness to The Pale that had been lacking these past months. She thought again of her bishop’s groping hands and the rage they had inspired in her, and she felt at odds with her church’s leadership and its goals. She had never been chosen to attend the Festival of The Pale before, but she knew something grand was about to happen.

The Grim stalked ahead, the personification of The Pale in the world of man. She rode the great albino horse that never died, and a black fog issued from the hem of her rotting robes to crawl the ground in all directions, seeking out the corners and recesses of the city. She carried the staff that claimed everything before it. Mort had never been so close to The Grim, and her excitement for the festival brought her near to panting.

The procession stopped at the center of town. The Grim dropped heavy to the street beside her mount, and with a clawed hand, stroked the beast’s muscled flank. She shuffled forward, dragging her feet and leaning heavily on the staff until she reached the very center of the courtyard. There, she slowly lifted the staff a few inches from the ground and held it aloft.

“Wretched mother of death, we come to this place at this time to make tribute and receive tribute in your honor.” The Grim’s prayer broke across the air, dry like the rattling of bones. “I claim this city for the duration of the festival for you and your enjoyment.”

She slammed the staff into the ground. The street trembled as a circle of power exploded in all directions and embraced the entire city. The crows lifted into the air, screaming as they stained the Mestlven sky as black as a cloud of noxious gas issuing from a ruptured corpse.

If you liked what you’ve read you can find out more about the author and the book via the links below!

Author bio:

Jesse Teller fell in love with fantasy when he was five years old and played his first game of Dungeons & Dragons. The game gave him the ability to create stories and characters from a young age. He started consuming fantasy in every form and, by nine, was obsessed with the genre. As a young adult, he knew he wanted to make his life about fantasy. From exploring the relationship between man and woman, to studying the qualities of a leader or a tyrant, Jesse Teller uses his stories and settings to study real-world themes and issues.

Today I’m very glad to be the next stop on the Kin of Cain blog tour. First let me tell you I jumped at the chance and did receive a copy of the book in advance but as always with Harffy’s work it was already on my pre-order list so I’ve paid for my copy too 🙂

Matthew has kindly wrote a post about what the future holds which will follow on from my review so sit back and enjoy! My thanks go to the author and Yasemin at Head of Zeus for making this blog tour happen!

AD 630. Anglo-Saxon Britain. A gripping, action-packed historical tale set in the world of The Bernicia Chronicles. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell.

Winter grips the land in its icy fist. Terror stalks the hills, moors and marshes of Bernicia. Livestock and men have been found ripped asunder, their bones gnawed, flesh gorged upon. People cower in their halls in fear of the monster that prowls the night.

King Edwin sends his champions, Bassus, Octa and band of trusted thegns, to hunt down the beast and to rid his people of this evil.

Bassus leads the warriors into the chill wastes of the northern winter, and they soon question whether they are the hunters or the prey. Death follows them as they head deeper into the ice-rimed marshes, and there is ever only one ending for the mission: a welter of blood that will sow the seeds of a tale that will echo down through the ages.

Review

When I first read The Serpent Sword I was shocked at how quickly Octa disappeared from the tale, it’s this murder that sets Beobrand on his journey but I was left wondering who Octa really was.. was he anything like his brother?

Well now we have the chance to see a little of the man himself in a short story set before the events The Serpent Sword.

86 pages is a decent amount of pages for a short tale in my opinion and Harffy doesn’t hold back. For me what I really enjoyed was this tale has a bit of fantasy and mystery to it. The unknown force that is attacking people..is it human or beast.. either way the King wants it dead!

Octa sets out with a band of men to prove himself to his King and one of my favorite characters is included in this group, Bassus! oh how I love that man.

Harffy weaves a tale which includes the death and gore we are used to but it also manages to give some depth to Octa that wasn’t possible before.

The tale is full of suspense, it’s dark, gritty and gruesome..what more could you possibly want?

When I was reading the tale I couldn’t help but see Octa as Beowulf and reading the author note it was really great to see the Harffy’s thought process on this. It really made the tale stand out.

Personally I feel Harffy has loads to offer and I hope to see more shorts in the future as I feel they bring depth to the authors world and allow them the chance to share some great stories with us the readers. When I commit to an authors work I want to feel like they are committing to me also..to give me their best and Harffy never disappoints.

Kin of Cain is thriller/mystery/fantasy/myth/folklore and so much more wrapped in to 86 glorious pages and it’s well worth the asking price.

What the future holds for me and my writing – Matthew Harffy

If you’d asked me four years ago what the future held for me and my writing I would have said I hope to find an agent and then get published. In February 2013 I was close to finishing the first draft of my debut novel, The Serpent Sword. I’d never written anything longer than a few hundred words before and I could see no further than completing the book and somehow getting it out in front of readers who hopefully would like it. That was it. I really had no ambition beyond that, apart, of course, from the secret dream of selling millions of books and becoming rich enough to retire to a tropical island somewhere. But we won’t talk about that.

So much has changed in the last four years. I finished The Serpent Sword and found an agent. I then wrote the sequel, The Cross and the Curse, while my newly-acquired agent tried to sell the first book, and, unfortunately, failed. This failure pushed me to self-publish both books, whilst pressing on with the writing that had somehow become part of my life by this point. Both books were doing well and garnered many positive reviews. This finally piqued the interest of a publisher, so I signed a contract with Aria, a new imprint of publisher, Head of Zeus. Aria re-published the first two books and then published book three of the Bernicia Chronicles, Blood and Blade. They also managed to sell the rights for the three novels to Audible, who have now released the audio books for them, narrated by a great actor called Barnaby Edwards.

I have also written a prequel novella, Kin of Cain, which is out now, and completed book four in the Bernicia Chronicles, Killer of Kings, which is due out in June.

I am now well into the first draft of book five in the series, which will also be published by Aria, who have plans to release all the books in hardcover and mass market paperback in the coming months and years. I am even hearing talk of possible translations of the books in the works!

The point of this rambling on about the past and all the great things that have happened in the last four years is that I had no idea what would happen then, and I don’t really know what the future will bring in the next four years. But what I do know is that there will be more novels in the Bernicia Chronicles. Beobrand’s tale marches on into the seventh century and he will see more kings come and go. He will face his foes in the clash of shieldwalls in battles throughout the island of Albion and, who knows, perhaps even beyond its shores.

And when I decide to move on from Beobrand? When I am done with the mead hall and the shieldwall? What then? Well, I would love to write a western, but I am told there is no money in them. If I am ever close to living in my dream where I have enough money to write what I want and not care about how many people will read it, I will probably turn my hand to the American West. I can almost smell the rotgut whiskey and the pungent stench of gunpowder in the air of a rowdy cattle town when the ranchers and their cowhands have rolled in from the dusty trail. If you look carefully, you will see much of the so-called Wild West in the Bernicia Chronicles, but I would relish the chance to write at least one book set on the Frontier of civilization in the 19th century.

If, as is much more likely, I will have to write books that might sell and which appeal to readers of my books, I have an idea for a Viking saga, which actually has elements of a western in it. But I can say no more now, as it is just a twinkle in this author’s eye! It’s either that or romance, which my wife assures me sells better than the violent books I write. I’m not sure I would do very well at that, but I might have to think of pen name if I want to find out!

I am sometimes tempted to write a fantasy. I am a huge fan of writers like J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and David Gemmell, so I have a firm understanding of the genre. And the thing that I like most about it, is that I would not have to stick to historical facts! In many ways, the stories I tell could easily be transposed into a word of epic fantasy. But as I am writing historical fiction, I am constrained by what is known to have happened, the technology available, and when things occurred. Oh, and no dragons or magic!

I would love the chance to be able to just create a plot and write whatever I wanted because I would be in total control and nobody could tell me I had got something wrong, as it would be my creation!

So, what of the future? I think we’ll have to wait and see. But if people keep buying my books, I think I can safely say I’ll continue to write them.

Hopefully others will enjoy whatever directions in which the muse takes me.

Today I open my blog to author Trisha Hughes. Her novel Vikings to Virgin – The Hazards of being a King is to be released on the 28th February and I’ll be reviewing just as soon as I can so I thought why not highlight the release by letting Trisha take control of my blog for a little bit.

When we think of Britain’s monarchs, most of us would agree that early periods of time are clearly muddled. Many are hidden in the mists of time while some have almost completely disappeared. What we do know is that there were kings who ruled for only a few months and there are some who ruled for over fifty years. There are also some who should never have ruled at all.

If you know anything about the British, you’ll know that among the good and the well-meaning monarchs, some of them were ruthless, not to mention greedy, murderous and totally corrupt. Their story is better than a thriller about a serial killer on the loose because ‘Vikings to Virgin – The Hazards of being King’ is absolutely true. Don’t imagine a fairy story with handsome kings whisking off princesses on their white horses to the sound of trumpets and the cheers of their people. Imagine powerful individuals who were brutal and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted and who were more than happy to get rid of the odd family member or two who were standing in the way of their progress to the throne.

Monarchs of Britain all share one thing in common. In their lifetimes, they were the most powerful individuals in the land.

Their story spans 1500 years and is full of lust, betrayal, heroism, murder, cruelty and mysteries. It’s a journey through time when the Romans began their march through Britain and travels through Saxon times, the Vikings, the Normans, the Plantagents and finally the Tudors.

Their stories are full of savagery and cruelty but there is no story more brutal than the War of the Roses during the Plantagenet dynasty. It was a dangerous period full of unfathomable brutality, shifting alliances, murders, betrayals, plots and savage elimination and it only ended when Henry Tudor usurped the throne. His reign began in a bloodbath and he continued on with gusto.

If you asked people which monarch they find the most interesting, the answer is often either Henry VIII or Richard III. Sometimes King John. And the reason for this is because they were the bad boys of history. Henry VIII’s reign will forever be remembered for the treatment of his six wives who were divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, in that order. John is remembered for generally annoying his brother Richard Lionheart, and Richard III, well, didn’t he kill his nephews? But when you look at all three individually, did they really deserve their terrible reputations? Were there extenuating circumstances for each of them?

This question has been asked many times in history. All three kings had certainly done some terrible things during their reigns and none of them were shy when it came to getting rid of someone who stood in their way, including their wives. But standing back and putting things into perspective, were all the grizzly stories told about them actually true?

The character of King John is well known. His brother Richard I has been likened to a lion, hence the name Richard Lionheart, and most would agree that there was no animal in nature that combines the conflicting qualities of John. He was a hardened warrior with the subtlety and cunning of a Machiavellian and from time to time during his furious rages, his cruelties were executed with cold, inhumane intelligence. He lied, he cheated, he manipulated and he more than likely had his nephew Arthur murdered, if he didn’t do it himself, because Arthur was next in line in the queue to the throne after his uncle Richard. John wasn’t the first to do this and he certainly wouldn’t be the last. It almost seems like a predisposition for most rulers in history.

But when you think about it, most of the books transcribed in the Middle Ages were written by monks and we know that John quarrelled endlessly with the Church, was even excommunicated, so most monks hated him. And sure, he lost Normandy to King Philip II of France and he ripped up the Magna Carta after promising, with his hand over his heart, to uphold it.

But of late, some historians are thinking outside the box. He was a hard-working king who improved the law courts and made the barons, who had free reign due to Richard’s absence, obey the law.

Without condoning anything that John did, perhaps in his own way, he was doing the best he could in a very difficult situation while trying to stop the English economy from going belly up. He may have gone about it rather badly by throwing tantrums and taxing everyone to the max and he certainly had an escalating cruel streak, but maybe this escalation began for a very good reason. He had an unreliable brother who was taking every bit of spare cash he could lay his hands on out of England leaving John frustrated and scrambling around trying to make ends meet.

At the time, Richard had gone on his merry way to the Crusades with every bit of available cash he could find to fund his crusades. In my humble opinion, the minute Richard set foot in England he regarded the country as a cash cow that he fully intended to milk leaving John struggling during his absence.

To me, it seems to have been the catalyst that started John on his downward spiral into absolute cunning, cruelty and deviousness. But then again, he was a Plantagenet.

And then we have Richard III, evil incarnate if we are to believe some historians. His two nephews certainly would have thought that as they sat captive in the Tower of London waiting to be released. But we know they never left the Tower and were never seen again after Richard kissed them both on the cheeks and virtually shoved them through the gate.

Richard’s story is a story not too different from many in history. It’s a story of ambition gone awry and the damage it leaves in its wake. That he loved the boys was never questioned but it’s difficult to place a date on when he had a change of heart regarding his nephews’ right to the throne.

That they died is understood. And presumably Richard had them murdered. But was it actually Richard as we have been led to believe or was it someone else who orchestrated their death?

There have been many suspects’ names drawn out of the hat and of course, Richard’s name always comes up first. He had the most to gain from their death and he’d already been implicated in his brother, Edward IV’s death.

But let’s not forget Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother. No other mother in history seems to have been as dedicated as she was to have her son sit on the throne. And then of course, there’s Henry himself. It was only after his coronation that rumours began to circulate that Richard had killed the boys. This could easily have been to cover up his own involvement in their murder. Let’s not forget that if Richard had merely stashed the boys away in the Tower for their own good, Henry would have had to get rid of them because their claim to the throne was by far better than his. In actual fact, Henry had barely any claim at all. The princes would have simply had to go if they were in fact alive in the Tower when he usurped the throne from Richard.

As for Henry VIII, we all know that his biggest concern was producing a male heir to pass on the throne and continue the Tudor dynasty. It controlled his life and it’s a terrible blot on his record that his reign should be remembered for his cruelness and executions. The sufferings of his wives and devout men and women stand in shocking contrast to the welcome he received as an energetic, lovable, charismatic 19-year-old when he took the throne. But by 55 years of age, he had become morbidly obese and ill, and as a consequence he was harsh, egotistical and cruel.

But a new theory proposes that Henry actually may have had McLeod syndrome, a recessively inherited genetic disorder that can affect the blood, brain, nerves, muscles and heart. Furthermore, by tracing the reproductive history of his great grandmother, Catherine of Valois, (whose brother was King Charles VI of France, otherwise known as ‘Crazy Charles’), there’s little doubt that he may have inherited a mental instability gene from her. It could explain Henry’s transformation from gentle prince to terrible tyrant.

‘Vikings to Virgin – The Hazards of being King’ is a rambling narrative beginning when the Britons first glimpsed a square sail and a dragon-headed prow on the horizon, churned by oars through the waves as blue water foamed around the hull of a mighty ship one cold, miserable January morning. No one heard the muffled sounds over the water. They were still rubbing sleep out of their eyes after a savage night of arctic air had cut its way through cracks in the walls.

It’s a story of kings who struggled to hold on to their throne, of horrendous bloody battles, of tiny boys becoming rulers, of ruthless usurpers and of queens who proved to be more powerful than anyone could have ever imagined. It’s a story of invading armies, of rival family members, of spies and conspiracies.

And I’ve loved every minute of writing it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

:

Trisha Hughes started her writing career with her memoire ‘Daughters of Nazareth’ eighteen years ago. The debut novel was first published by Pan Macmillan Australia and became a bestseller in 1997 beating the current Stephen King book to the top 10 bestsellers at the time. Since then she has discovered a thirst for writing. She’s written crime novels but her latest book, the first in her ‘V 2 V’ trilogy, ‘Vikings to Virgin – The Hazards of being King’, is her passion and due for release on 28th February 2017. Click here to view the book on Amazon! She has a crime thriller due for release next year and she is currently working on the second in the series ‘Virgin to Victoria – The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen.’

To get your free copy for the first two books in the series click the image below!

Another bonus is that the author has kindly agreed to a guest post to give some background to the hierarchy within the series. Enjoy!

David was kind enough to ask me to write a guest blog on the hierarchy of the world of the Lake of Sins.

Book one in the series (Lake Of Sins: Escape) is told from the point of view (POV) of two Producers. This is probably not the best way to start the series since Producers are the lowest of the classes and have a very limited view of the world as a whole. Originally, the first two books were combined, so you did get a broader world view due to parts of the story being told through the POV of Almightys and a Guard.

However, the book was too long for traditional publication and I was told by an agent to either delete about 100,000 words or break it into two books. I reworked the original to create two books and here we are. For some, the hierarchy of the world of the Lake of Sins is confusing, until they read book two.

This should help readers who haven’t read book two.

Think of Producers as field slaves who are kept uneducated and isolated. Field slaves unlike house-slaves (or in this world House Servants) do not know the structure of the society as a whole. They only know their world. They understand that there are different levels of “masters” but they have no idea about the government and even the workings of a small town. They know their village and farming and that’s it.

Now, Trinity, the main character (MC) is a little different because her father, who is a House Servant, taught her to read. She knows a little about his life with Almightys and has a slightly broader world view but not much (although she understands a lot more by the end of book one).

So, let me present to you the Hierarchy of the Lake of Sins!

I really hope this post gives you some interesting background to the social structure. It’s very easy to follow during the books but for me this is a unique series and I wanted you to know more about the world L. S. O’Dea has created . Here’s some useful links :-

As part of the 12 days of Clink Street Christmas blog tour I’m very happy to bring you a guest post from Tony Halker author of The Learn who will give us a bit of an insight into his work..but first.. here’s my review of the book. 🙂

Here’s the book blurb –

Blending reality, history and legend, about a time when women were considered as important as men, taking power in an oral society that worships the Goddess. A whole Celtic Druid world is laid out before us, incorporating beliefs, technology and the natural environment.
A Celtic boy, a beach scavenger, is pledged to the Learn, a life of endurance, a path to become sworn Druid: scholar and warrior. Young women and men progress, becoming Priests and Druidii. Friendship, affection, passion and care develop as novices mature, confidence emerging.
Seasonal battles of winter and summer bring rich festivals when seeds of men are taken by women in pleasure to prove fertility. Small damaged, hurt peoples on the margins of Celtic society blend in and out of vision.
At frontiers with Nature, dependent for everything on what the earth gives or takes, an emotional response to the natural environment defines who people are and the values they live by.
A lyrical novel resonating with modern readers through portrayal of character, language and history; arising from a landscape of today, yet centred in the Celtic Bronze Age of North Wales.

Review

The Learn follows Owayne on his journey from being a boy, a local beach scavenger to that of a priest.

What i really enjoyed about this book was that the author really made me think about development, growth and learning within the human race. We take so much for granted but at one point humans didn’t have things such as paracetamol, cars, bricks even..the list is endless.

It was really good to see the author show different views to learning. As you could imagine some people would be open to new ideas but even in this day and age some people are stuck in there ways and don’t see things as progress.

My personal view is Owayne’s journey is one of enlightenment as he opens his mind and his eyes to all the possibilities out there in the world..all the wonders waiting to be shared.

For me the pace of the tale was a little 0n the slow side..i like a fast paced tale after all, but the pace did offer the chance for you to see the spiritualistic or even sometimes simplistic and differing views on knowledge and development.

This book isn’t a hard read as such but it needs your time and focus to really understand and enjoy the tale. The language used takes time to digest to fully immerse yourself in “The Learn”.

Overall The Learn is a very creative and interesting tale about knowledge and development along with the dangers surroundings it. The final few chapters of the tale really had me hooked with the injection of action right when you needed it.

The tale really does make me think about what it must have been like when things were discovered.. and would have i been one of those scared, or would i have embraced it?

It’s a calm story for the most part and the book would be really suited for those who have the time to devote to it, to embrace the tale like Owayne must embrace “The Learn”

My thanks go to Authoright for the chance to read/review the book and to Tony who shares with us his insight to “The Learn” below.

“The Learn”

“The Learn” is about technology change, the values and beliefs that emerge in us from technology, the confidence or fear those changes engender; the angst that emerges in us when we perceive we have lost or will lose some control or power. It is also about belief, blasphemy, equality, power and authority and our reactions to those things

My canvas is the bronze age, it enables me to add a dimension that is Nature, the environment, what it gives, takes and threatens. Some readers have wanted to say that “The Learn” is about the bronze age. I prefer to express that it is simply set there because that age offers real places that are fertile territory and lend other dimensions to a rich story. That context lets me challenge on issues of interest.

I love the mountain beach landscape of “The Learn”, I can wander there today. It is full of stone age and bronze age artefacts, remnant dwellings and even jewellery of skill and imagination. I envision peoples who emerged from the land, were formed by its gifts and pressures, yet faced the same comforts and fears as we do now. I think they were like us, laying foundations for us to build on in many areas of technology, values and beliefs.

I wanted to write a book that is not a quick fix; that draws people in with effort, that is not sensational; is as much about landscape, place, voice, nature and atmosphere as about particular events. I want a reader to live within my novel. I hope that a few may grieve a little when a character joins his or her ancestors or just slips from view. I hope at the end of the story I am leaving questions about the people and their future developments that will have readers seeking out a sequel, the next stage of The Learn

We have so much folklore to build on to make a rich story. We know the names of Celtic/Druid Deities, we have the Romans’ view of their defeated enemies that they clearly feared. I have taken the festivals of summer and winter, their transition and what we know about them today and tried to re-imagine them in the place where they were first formed, performed and meant so much for the coming season, harvests, weather and the goodwill of The Deities.

We know the Romans twice tried to eliminate the seat of Druid power in North Wales. It was not just people they feared but power, culture and values, a belief system to challenge that of Rome; where women ruled alongside men and Druids controlled belief and trade. Societies and cultures, tribes and families prosper or fail based upon cohesion, shared values and joint vision, as well as effort and purpose. I wanted to weave that into “The Learn”, since I hoped to form a historical novel that considers the issues we face today and acknowledges that our forebears so far back were intelligent, worthy ancestors whose spirit and blood runs in our veins.

I wanted my characters to be ordinary, yet interesting. There are damaged small people whose bodies are malformed, by poor diet, over work in the dark, the challenges of nature and the ill will of superstition. There are lonely souls of uncertain gender whose purpose of being has been taken by time and technology change, but who find some comfort and will to live by fulfilling the purpose they were taught, even though that no longer has merit or use to society.

Nature, Anu the Goddess looks down on all of this. She challenges in order to see the development of Knowledge of human peoples. She values fortitude.

We are here because we have struggled and survived through hunger, cold, heat, climate change and competition for resources. We are the ones who made it this far, yet as a species we have lived for only a couple of million years, (the Dinosaurs lived for about 180 million years). Our spirit needs to be on edge, alert to threats, planning how to manage, to fight or flee. We need daily challenge and purpose if our biology is not to shut down. I wanted to write about that and how our ancestors may have acknowledged these issues and managed them.

Born in London, Tony Halker studied geology at Leeds University after which he worked as a geologist, travelling extensively overseas. Following an MBA at Cranfield School of Management, he became a manager in hi-tec business and later a businessman and entrepreneur. His writing is inspired by powerful natural landscapes and his interest in the people and technologies emerging from those hard places. His two daughters were born in North Wales. He lives with his wife there and in Hertfordshire.